Featured Traveler: Vlogger Sonia Gil

Don’t expect detailed scenes of specialized tours or lengthy (read: overkill) coverage of eateries when you arrive at Featured Traveler Sonia Gil’s website, Sonia Travels. The wandering travel “vlogger” and lexicon-loving founder of Fluenz, a company that creates language learning software, shies away from specifics in her short travel videos. Instead, Gil strives to tap into the attitude of a place, the “magic code” that makes it tick. Her motto couldn’t be more suited to AFAR’s mission: “There are travelers, and there are tourists,” she says. “Tourists come and go. Travelers … try to experience, to understand, and, in the process, learn something about themselves. I want to rouse that traveler within.”

Sonia’s latest project is Fluent Road, a language learning software and collaboration between Lonely Planet and Fluenz custom-tailored to teaching travelers. We caught up with Sonia to hear about her latest adventures and favorite discoveries.

My next trip is to Sedona, Arizona.
First international trip: I was five years old and my mother took me to New York (I was living in South America at the time). Everything, absolutely everything, was mesmerizing.